As we’ve
seen, the musical madcaps of
Pago Libre take their influences from anything and everything, from the great world of the movies to the Dada movement. So why not mountains and hiking for their latest effort,
Mountain Songlines? It seems that pianist and composer John Wolf Brennan really likes to get out and walk. And when you do that in Switzerland, well, you’ve seen pictures of the Alps even if you haven’t been there, so you can just imagine the combination of will, stamina, and conditioning one needs to get out on the ridges for a hike. As Brennan says to Peter Monaghan in the liner notes, when “you hike in the mountains, especially in bad weather ... every step has to be taken cautiously. And standing still is not an option.” In a sense, that’s also true of music that combines improvisation with composition. Pago Libre is celebrating 30 years of doing just that with their music. In the current edition of the band, hornman Arkady Shilkloper and Brennan, who’ve been there all along, are now joined by violinist Florian Meyer and bassist Tom Götze. Brennan’s beautiful
Hornborn Hymn, emphasizing the chamber music aspect of his influences, starts the proceedings, with Shilkloper leading the way. The more experimental side of the band comes into play with another Brennan composition,
GTE (Grande Traversata Elbana), his impression of walking a 60-kilometer trail that traverses the island of Elba. Brennan uses his piano variations of arco- and pizzicatopiano on this one, giving the piece an other-worldly feeling, probably not dissimilar from the disorienting sense of standing atop Monte Capanne surrounded by the land which is itself surrounded by the ocean. On one hand, there is so much theory and background for this music that Monaghan takes six pages of small type in the booklet to describe some of the many aspects of life and music that become transformed into sound. We read about Brennan’s fascination with the work of ethnomusicologist Alfred Leonz Gassmann (manifested on
Hol-di-o-U-ri!), Shilkloper’s tongue-in-cheek explanation of how he composed his ravishing
The Melody of the Earth, dedicated to the dolphins of the world, and Mayer’s experience of mysterious voices in the middle of the night which led to
Urwuchs, his first composition for the group. On the other hand, there is so much beauty amid the often unexpected combinations of sound from these four inventive musicians and guest yodeler and vocalist Sonja Morgenegg that, although helpful in detail, you don’t really need too much of the background to enjoy their blend of jazz sensibilities, folk song orientation, Swiss motifs, and sheer creativity in the context of a drum-less chamber group.
Mountain Songlines is an absolute winner, heartily recommended.
In addition to his endeavors with Pago Libre, pianist
John Wolf Brennan has recorded many sessions of his own in an array of contexts. He likes to think big, and the notes for
Nevergreens, his anthology of solo performances, reveal that the tracks first appeared on six different albums, released between 1989 and 2009. They’re conceived as the “blue trilogy,” on the Creative Works label, followed by the “yellow trilogy,” with two titles on Creative Works and
The Speed Of Dark (Leo). A third trilogy is promised, but in the meantime, we have this mash-up of tracks from half-a-dozen projects, plus
The Homing, a short work composed for a “radiophonic play” in 2009. Faithful chronicler Peter Monaghan contributes a thoughtful essay that touches on Brennan’s career and the life experiences that inform his wide-ranging music making. In brief, the Irish-born Brennan’s family moved to central Switzerland when he was young, and between the Irish lullabies that his mother would sing, music lessons that he started at age 11, Swiss folk songs, and much more, Brennan has developed an especially inspired life in music. Monaghan describes him as “a musical explorer and geographer, crafting jazz-related soundscapes,” an assessment that gets it exactly right. For anyone not familiar with his work,
Nevergreens seems like an awfully good place to start, as Brennan has assembled and sequenced this CD with an ear towards representing the key aspects of his work. There’s the lovely dance of
Belles ‘n’ Decibels, the nuanced exploration of minimalist music via
Para.Ph(r)ase (a gloss on Steve Reich’s
Violin Phase), the mellow strains of
Strollin’ down Memory Lane, the stately and stunningly beautiful
Circle of Coherence, and the ruminative
Fake Five, to pick just a few pieces. A Brennan recital is likely to include explorations of the piano’s innards. One variation he calls arcopiano, created with fishing line and bow hairs, which achieves a surprisingly clamorous drone on
Isle of View. Then there’s the pizzicatopiano, which duets with Brennan’s melodica via overdubbing on
Lost im Violin. There’s also a piece with prepared piano, the ghostly dance he calls
Rump-L-Rumba. There’s plenty to enjoy here, and clearly there’s a lot more music to explore alongside one of creative music’s most intrepid figures. Happily recommended.
Mountain Songlines:
Leo CD LR 886; Arkady Shilkloper (horn, alphorn [9,13], alperidoo [3], vcl [8]) Florian Mayer (vln, vcl [8]) John Wolf Brennan (p, arco-/pizzicatopiano [2,3,5,11], vcl [8]) Tom Götze (b, vcl [8]] Sonja Morgenegg (yodel [9], vcl [12]); Winterthur, Switzerland, February 19-20, 2020; exc. 13, Dresden, Germany, February 8, 2018; 1.Hornborn Hymn/ 2. GTE (Grande Traversata Elbana)/ 3.Urwuchs/ 4. ...von der armenischen Prinzessin (Armenian Princess)/ 5.PreGap: At the Abyss of Nothing/ 6.Cümbüs/ 7.Ridge Walk/ 8.Hol-di-o-U-ri!/ 9.Tü-da-do/ 10.Selbsanft/ 11.Vertical Vectors/ 12.The Melody of the Earth/ 13. Bonus track: Medley “Mountain Songlines” (YouTube video soundtrack); 55:24.
Nevergreens:
Leo CD LR 865; John Wolf Brennan (p, melodica [6,12], arcopiano [7], pizzicatopiano [6], prepared p [11]); Ludwigsburg, Germany, 1989 (1,2,5,10,13,14,19) or 1991 (4,9,18), Weggis, Switzerland, 1998 (7,11), Boswil, Switzerland, 2002 (20), Winterthur, Switzerland, 2009 (3,6,8,15-17), and Zurich, Switzerland, 2009 (12); 1.Did U see the Way?/ 2.Parto/ 3.Ever for Never/ 4.Belles ‘n’ Decibels/ 5.Kerava/ 6.Lost im Violin/ 7.Isle of View/ 8.Para.Ph(r)ase/ 9.Phi/ 10.Strollin’ down Memory Lane/ 11.Rump-L-Rumba/ 12.Homing/ 13.Circle of Coherence/ 14.Goofy’s Waltz/ 15. Auf Valser Pfaden -Läntahütte/ 16.Auf Valser Pfaden -Murmelitanz (Marmot’s Dance)/ 17.Auf Valser Pfaden -Zerfeila/ 18.Fake Five/ 19.Song of the Moon/ 20.Kyoto; 73:24.
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